Be extremely wary of any email, letter or telephone call from someone saying you have won money in a competition you never entered, or that money is waiting to be claimed in exchange for your bank details or an upfront payment.

Typical examples include the 'official' British lottery and rich people offering you millions. We're also hearing of people being offered fantastic jobs in the UK subject, of course, to a fee.

It is almost certainly a scam run by criminals. Please ignore it.

Some phone numbers, postal addresses and email addresses appear to be in the UK. In fact, many scams claiming to come from the UK actually come from other countries and the criminals are beyond the UK's jurisdiction.

The Metropolitan Police has further advice on email scams.